In The Beginning
Berwick Cricket Club was established on 28th June 1844 according to the earliest copy of the club rules when around fifty people acquired the use of land beyond the Elizabethan walls at the cowport gate. The following announcement appeared in the 13th of July 1844 edition of the Berwick Advertiser.
CRICKET - A club has been formed in the town for pursuing this popular amusement , There are, we understand , fifty members entered and they have secured for their purpose that piece of ground near the cowport gate used as a tank during winter, upon which some improvements are being made for their convenience,
C.S Goodman was the clubs first secretary whilst in his speech at the opening of the grand jubilee Fete of 1894 the mayor also referred to A.R Lowery, D Logan and J Gray as amongst its founders. The annual subscription in that first season was six shillings which had to be paid quarterly whilst spectators paid half a crown to enter the ground. Exactly when the first match was played is unknown but the earliest scorebook dates back to 1852 when Berwick travelled to Newcastle to take on Northumberland Club 2nd XI. The match itself was played over two innings and Berwick ended up losing by 54 runs. In 1854, in another two innings per side match against Tynemouth, Berwick were dismissed for nine runs in the first innings (a total including three extras) but still managed to win the match by two runs!
In 1856 Berwick began matches against Kelso, a fixture which could well be the oldest between two border sides and one that still continues to this day.
In the early years WA Mather and H Mason were the most successful bowlers and in the 1860's Berwick were able to field a second eleven and an under 18 side. In 1865 HFW ~Colson scored the first recorded century for the club when he hit 118 against Kelso at Sheddon Park. In 1863 the first in a long line of professionals was employed at a cost of half a crown per match and in many instances his duties were combined with that of groundsman. In 1873 an all rounder by the name of T Dennison was the club Club Pro and he was followed by Messrs. McLeod, Hardaker, Wheat and Morris before J Davis held the post in 1865 and 1886. H Linathan took over for three seasons, 1889-91 and in his final season took 46 wickets at a cost of 8.8 runs each.
During the early seasons the state of the wicket came in for constant criticism so in 1881 the square was re-laid at a cost of £120 and in a special two day match to celebrate this Berwick defeated Northumberland Club by 50 runs. To offset the cost of hiring the ground, which had risen to £25 per annum that year, the club bought a number of sheep, grazed them on the ground over the summer and sold them at the end of the year for a profit. From the 1880's the soldiers from the Kings Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) depot in the town were allowed to use the field and many of the soldiers would turn out for the club, an association which was to continue through to the Second World War. Despite the cricket club being tenants, the field was used for many other activities; there was a tennis section as well as quoits and croquet at various times whilst Berwick Rangers FC used the outfield in the winter months.
In 1890 the name JA Herriot topped the batting averages with 15.1 and he became one of the finest batsmen Berwick have ever had, topping the averages again in 1892 (av 45.2) and 1895 (33.4). Herriots best years coincided with profitable times for the club itself and in fact in 1892 the side won 13 of its 16 matches.
The Golden Age?
On the 2nd of August 1894 the club celebrated its 50th anniversary in fine style with the mayor and a large gathering of the local good and the great. The event was well reported in the Berwick Journal at the time. The club had a playing membership of around 100, although it is not reported if they were all playing members.
In 1894 the club was deeply in debt and the occasion of the jubilee was used to run a money raising bazaar and fete to clear the debt. This was a very successful enterprise and not only cleared the debts but left money over to carry on the club.
The joint secretary then was Alex Miller who celebrated his own fiftieth birthday at the same time and the club presented him with a silver mounted flask in recognition of his long service to the club. In his speech at the celebration, Alex Millar told how he had first played for the club in 1853 when a large portion of the ground was uncut and unlevelled and the small playing area was cut with a scythe and seldom rolled. He told the story of a match at against Kelso at Sheddon Park. Berwick were batting with about 90 to get, against the bowling of Lord Haddington. One of the spectators, the marquis of Bowmont, commented loudly that the bowling of Lord Haddington was illegal because his bowling arm was above his shoulder. However, the batsman one W. Mather, asked his captain not to object to the bowling as it was very easy to play. In any event, the bowler took umbrage at the Marquis' comments and walked off, whereupon the Marquis took his place and decided to bowl himself. Since he was only a spectator he had no right to do this but the aristocracy had a way of doing things in those days. The Berwick supporters started to complain about his behaviour but once again Mather asked the captain not to object as his Lordship was no better a bowler than the previous one!
The oldest member of the club in 1894 was David Logan who had bowled underarm. Not much is known about him except that he was described as having been a competent cricketer in his time. The first wickets on the ground were not very good, even by the low standards of the time, but with the appointment of professionals, whose job included work on the ground, the Pier Field was reckoned to be the best ground between Newcastle and Edinburgh. There still exists an agreement between the club and Ferdinand Robinson under which he was paid two pounds and five shillings to be the clubs professional and groundsman, to assist him the club provided a boy and a horse.
Professionals continued to be employed by the club on a fairly regular basis up to 1937 when the last one called Bibby left after topping the batting and bowling averages for the season. In December 1894 there was a meeting of representatives of cricket clubs of the South of Scotland to discuss the possibilities of setting up a league. It is thought that such a league would improve the general standard of cricket in the area. There is no further mention of the league in later records and the club did not play any part in league cricket until the 1980's.
Matches before the first world war were friendlies against teams from the local area such as Coldstream, Belford and Tillside and, in addition, they also played against schools in Edinburgh such as Fettes College and Stewarts Melville.
Cricket was suspended during the war but re started in Berwick in 1919 and it was nice to see that some of the players from before the war, JA Heriot, JA Miller, HGC and JL McCreath had survived to form part of the new start to the club. However, the standard seems to have fallen dramatically, and in 1921 they were all out for 21 against Tillside and soon after, Coldstream scored 208 runs for 5 wickets declared before bowling Berwick out for 39 runs!
The club had a financial crisis in 1932 when membership declined and as a result the groundsman was given notice to leave. The club came close to closing down, but the remaining members rallied around and eventually enough money was raised to keep the groundsman and pay off all debts.
Before the 2nd World War, tennis was played on the Pier Field. The Northumberland Tennis Tournament, organised by RH Dodds had 8 Tennis courts for a week straight across the square. The Berwick Amateur Athletic and Tweedside Cycling Clubs held important annual events on the Pier Field and both the Tweed and Pier Tennis Clubs (in the summer months) and the Berwick Hockey Club (in the winter months) used the field. The Regimental Depot of the KOSB's had the field on a regular basis with an important cricket week when many well known cricketers played; throughout this period on many occasions the depot supplied players for the Berwick team, many as last minute replacements and it is often rumoured, straight out of the guards room.
As Berwick Corn and Cattle Markets were held on Saturdays a number of club members were unavailable on that day, so matches were also arranged on Thursdays to accommodate such players. Looking back to the beginning of the 20th century one finds continuing family connections being involved through two or three generations playing or holding office. Henry McCreath over a period of Sixty years has held practically every position in the club. The name McCreath first appears as a cricketer, in 1903 when JA and JL McCreath played for the club. This family and others were, and continue to be, backbones which held the club together and laid the foundations of today’s teams. GH Ballard, Headmaster of Berwick Grammar School, served the club for over 30 years and, in 1937 when he relinquished office of secretary, was presented with a tea service.
Berwick throughout the years, has been known for its quality of umpiring; an ex player Tom Dunlop, a distinctive figure in his plus fours stood for many years and earned the respect of visiting teams. Douglas Lindsay, and more recently Donald Ringland and Ian Davison were always complemented on their fair judgements.
During the 1930's, when money was in very short supply, the field was cut and rolled by horse drawn machinery. The leather boots which the horses wore were until the pavilion was converted, were still in existence. One horse cost #8 and was sold at the end of the season for #3 His successors were replaced by an old car bought by Sandy Veitch for #3.10d (in old money)
In 1940 the Pier Field was requisitioned by the war department who permitted the club and the schools to play until finally de-requisitioned in 1947. At this time the clubs lease with the landlord, The Duke of Northumberland, expired. The club could not afford to take over the purchase of the field and it reverted to the town, along with the original pavilion, a building that was entirely funded by the private subscriptions of members and friends.
In the 1930's the club had a strong batting side headed by the Heriot brothers, JA and DR., supported by amongst others, Sidney and Norman Curry, Willie Murray from Fishwick, Jock Edney, George Martin and two clergymen, Tom Jones and George Johnston. Willie Yourston (Docker) was also an outstanding wicket keeper. The bowling was led by Jack Moffat, one of the best fast bowlers to have played for Berwick and one of the few members to have played for Northumberland County. He was still playing for the club in the 1950's as a hard hitting batsman who once scored a fifty in 35 mins. He was backed up by HM Pattison and Sid Abbot, who also ran a very successful dance band.
Some of the opposing clubs in this era no longer exist today, notably East Ord (the home of the Simmons Family) and Ayton where the players changed in cattle shed and there was a tree at square leg. Coldstream is another club who no longer exist, where at the town end, those fielding on leg side were well below the level of the pitch. On occasions Lord Home played for Coldstream against Berwick. An important game was played at Alnwick on August Bank Holiday. This was a needle game and Berwick often strengthened their side with the Kers, Willie and Andrew from Kelso and the Notmans from Bamburgh.
Decades of Change - 50s, 60s and 70s
After a fair few ordinary seasons in terms of results following the war, the clubs fortunes took an upturn from the mid fifties. For the next two decades the strength of the Pier Field side lay mainly with their bowlers although as R Lindsay of Jedburgh showed in August 1958 when he returned the remarkable figures of 9-4 runs it was not always the home bowlers who held the upper hand.
The attack, which included Leslie Dewar, T Spearman and Roland Penny, was bolstered by the arrival of Bill Renton in the latter half of the 1950's. In 1958 Renton finished second to Penny in the club bowling averages and went on to give sterling service to the club both on and off the pitch for the next thirty years. His pace and bounce on the often helpful Pier Field wicket was the scourge of visiting batsmen but his greatest achievement came against Falkirk Castings in the first match of the season. He took six wickets in six balls (five bowled and one caught) and finished with six for nine as Falkirk were dismissed for 27 in reply to Berwick's 110-8 a score which included 20 from a certain WF Renton.
Bill Stoddart arrived in the early 1960's from Sedburgh School and his accurate medium paced bowling was the perfect foil for Renton and he produced many fine performances for the club including nine for 37 against Corbridge in 1877. In the 60's and the 70's bill Nesbit and Alec 'King of Swing' Miller gave Berwick a pace attack of almost west Indian proportions whilst left armers Doug Skelly and Eddie Simmons, a recruit from the East Ord Club provided the spin variation.
During this period however, reliable batsmen were in more limited supply although TY Mitchell, the former Berwick Rangers Goalkeeper was a more than useful performer whilst Stoddart, Simmons and Ian Davidson provided many good innings. , the bulk of Berwick’s runs however, came from Dave McCreath and George Hope, two opening bats who could keep wicket. A youthful Hope finished third in the clubs batting averages in 1958 and in 1975 became the first player to notch over 1000 runs in a season, a feat subsequently matched by Graham Hush (1984) and Australian professional Tony O'Hara (1992)
In the 1970's the clubs batting strength was bolstered by the new arrivals Ian Guthrie, Ron Moore and New Zealander Graham Thomas. Graham Hush and Brian Simmons graduated from the local Grammar School. This all round strength combined with some 'Brearley like' captaincy notably from Davey Hindhaugh made the 70's a very successful period in terms of results.
However as opposing clubs became more and more involved in league and cup cricket many of the prestige friendly fixtures against the likes of Grange, Victorians at Close House and Corbridge were lost. Another institution which has sadly disappeared is the Annual Scottish Tour. Inaugurated in 1964 when the opponents were Crieff and Prestwick and although more recently it had been based in Perth, the Sunday fixture against Crieff was always the focal point. The tour survived for 29 years and a wealth of fun and enjoyment was had by the many players who made the annual journey north and hopefully a place can be found for such ventures in the future amongst the constraints of league and cup cricket.
